Spain has seen the most negative electricity prices this year, but another country remains the long-term leader

Negative prices have occurred most frequently this year in Spain, which has experienced a literal “boom” in this phenomenon in recent years. Spain only saw its first negative price last year. In previous years, it had only ever recorded zero electricity prices. Germany, however, has had the highest number of negative-price hours over the long term, where they have been occurring for many years. 

Negative prices are an increasingly common phenomenon in the European Union’s energy sector, although until recently they were an entirely unknown concept in some countries. Their number has risen sharply, particularly in recent years, mainly around midday during the summer, when solar power plants generate high volumes of electricity. However, these sources also bear the greatest cost of negative electricity prices. Their generation loses value because they generate primarily when there is insufficient demand for electricity.

Negative prices have occurred most frequently this year in Spain. Publicly available data show that prices have fallen below zero for 452 hours, meaning more than one in every ten hours so far this year. Including hours when the price was zero, the total comes to 594 hours (15 % of all hours this year).